STATE REGIONAL BASKETBALL QUARTERFINALS : Verbum Dei Hammered in Division IV Playoffs

Verbum Dei has been beaten by better teams in the last five years than Garces High of Bakersfield. But no one has dominated the Eagles the way the Central Section champion Rams did Tuesday night.

James Alderete scored 29 points and Mike Wall added 22 as the Rams broke away from the Eagles with runs of 26-6 and 15-1 en route to a 93-66 victory that eliminated Verbum Dei from the Southern California Division IV boys’ basketball championships.

“That’s the worst we’ve been beaten in five years, but it’s not, I don’t think, the best team we’ve played in five years,” Verbum Dei Coach Mike Kearney said.

Kearney helplessly watched as his players repeatedly missed from inside three feet, just as they did in a 69-53 loss to Serra in the finals of the Southern Section playoffs. The Eagles shot 42% from the field and were 21 of 36 from the free-throw line Tuesday.

“I was hoping we had gotten that out of our system and weren’t going to shoot like that again,” Kearney said. “You wouldn’t know it, but we usually shoot the ball well.”

Andre Miller scored 24 points and Lamont Solomon added 13 for Verbum Dei, which finished the season at 22-6.

Garces shot 67% from the field and had little trouble with Verbum Dei’s full-court pressure. The Eagles were unable to shoot over Garces’ zone defense and had little success going to the basket.

After the Eagles whittled a 21-point deficit to 15 with Miller’s 10-foot baseline jump shot, the Rams embarked on a 15-1 run that put the Eagles down by 29 with 4:32 to play in the third period. The Eagles could not draw closer than 18 points the rest of the way.

Records: Verbum Dei 22-6, Garces 21-8.